(introduction) My name is Tim and i have an addiction.
Discussion
For "Full Size Jeeps". It started back in early 2006 with a barely noticed ebay auction for 1979 Cherokee Chief. I've always had a 'thing' for these old beasts (and Jeep's in General), so decided to bid on it. Won it, brought it home, and that's when i realised i was in trouble.
Turned out to be as rotten as a pear, throughout the body. Which as i was to discover, is a standard issue with FSJ's. The drivetrain and frame, however was in great shape. So when another FSJ came up on the bay a couple months later, i grabbed it too in the hopes of being able to swapping body parts around and using sheet metal from one to patch the other.
Turns out the second one was even worse off than the first one.
To recoup my £££ (TBH, both cars had cost me less than £700), i chose to part out the first one. Had people come from as far as Wales and Holland to snatch up the engine, axles, and drivetrain parts. Then weighed the body in for scrap. Made more in parts than i had paid out, topping up the 'Jeep fund'.
Which i was then able to put to (what i thought was) good use when i found the 3rd FSJ later that year.
This one has a 'claim to fame' in that it was featured in Practical Classics magazine (Dec 2006) for a story about 'cheap' off-roaders (Written by Matt Jones). For which i trailered it up to Wildtracks, near Newmarket.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks later, i accidently pulled off one of the A pillars with my hand :shock: . Which tells you the extent of the corrosion damage :roll: . The second FSJ wasn't much better.
So, i parted them out (had a bloke come all the way from the Baltic Sea to pick up a lot of it), and weighed in the rest.
And gave up.
Until now.
Our local Jeep Club used to have a regular visitor at the monthly pub meets in Ben, a young man with an '82 Jeep Cherokee Chief that had been owned and passed several members of the family until it finally was taken on by Ben. As I've had a few SJ's in the past, we'd hang out and talk about what needed to be done to his Jeep and how best to proceed.
Then he stopped coming to the meets. Months went by, until last September, when he showed up again.
Turned out the reason he'd not been coming was because he'd been in and out of hospital for months. He'd been diagnosed with, and was being treated for, Aplastic Anemia, a form of Leukemia. Which basically means your bone marrow stops making blood cells.
So we spent the evening talking about his illness, Jeeps, Harleys, and general BS'ing. The next month i tried getting in touch to see if he was coming, that's when i found out he had lost his fight against his illness a few days before. At the age of 28.
Unfortunately i was not able to attend Ben's Funeral as my Mother In Law passed at about the same time, also from a long term illness, and we had to go to California for her funeral.
I waited a few months before trying to reach out to his family to find out what their plans were for the Chief. I finally reached his Mum on Facebook, through his page, and explained who i was and what Ben and i had talked about. This is her reply:
[quote]i'm so glad to hear from you. The meet he turned up to was two days before he went to st barts and never came home. He barely made it home that night. He kept blacking out, but refused to let my husband chauffeur him or come get him. He was so stubborn, he spoke about that evening as he said you had said about helping him. I had to cancel the order from the States, but he had been getting bits from various sources. The reason I was trying to find the Jeep Club was I had hoped to do just as you've said. Ben so wanted it finished, I couldn't bear for it to just waste away.
We called it the family heirloom as all of us had passed it around free, except for the large bills for whatever ailed it at that time. I would be grateful if you would come and look at it and discuss our options. Ben had two other projects, his Harley and his Fiesta [color=#BF0000](Mkii, UKJ)[/color]. The Fiesta is a project his friends in the Ford club want to do, and his Harley will be going to Italy in September to a Harley meet with one of his friends. No rush but when you want to come look let me know and we can discuss the options. My main aim is for Ben's projects to be finished and loved.
Loraine
[/quote]
Read her answer to my Wife last night, who of course started bawling as it reminded her of her Mom passing. And she DEMANDED that i follow this through. For Ben, for Ben's Mum, (and for her Mom).
No pressure then! :shock:
Went out to meet Tony and Loraine (Ben's Parents), looked over the Chief, and had a long talk with them about what the future holds. I told them what was wrong and what needed to be done. I explained to them as it is, if it was sold on Ebay, etc it would very probably end up being broken up for parts (the drivetrain is quite desirable for other off-roaders, as i found previously), and the rest would be scrapped. Because it was converted to RHD correctly (most of the UK SJ's, like all of my three, were converted "1/2 way" by cutting the steering column in half and using a chain drive to take the column across to the right hand side, along with various linkages for brake. etc) a successful sale to a Euro collecter would be difficult, and may again have resulted in the concern of stripping/scrapping.
As an '82 SJ properly converted to RHD drive it is a very rare vehicle. Perhaps one of the rarest Jeeps in Britain. It's not a particularly valuable car (as i said, i've had 3 in the past, all for under £300-£500), but Ben's parent's weren't concerned about it's financial value, they wanted the same as i do, to see Ben's final project completed and to see the "Family Heirloom" restored and attending car shows.
The result of this is that they have now given me Ben's Jeep (AKA "Freddie" as in Kruger).
Quite a bit to be done, first of which, and most important is to repair the roof. It has several rust holes that will need to be cut out and patched ('filler' is not an option). The roof bars and strips are not on the Jeep, and the area's around the bolt holes are quite well rusted. Also the edges of the roof above the drivers and passenger door, along with a small area at the front over the windshield are dissolved.
However... All of the bodywork below the gutters and down, is pristine. The fenders, wheel arches (inside and out), door frames, tailgate, and floor pans are perfect. No visible damage. Underbody still has good underseal, the fuel and brake lines show no corrosion, frame is good (except a bit of surface rust at the front frame horns). Chrome bumpers have no peeling or bubbling. Weather strips around glass is good. Rear window goes down, AND UP without tilting (though i didn't go all the way down). Rubber strips along bottom of drivers, rear, passenger windows is perished though. Tailgate will need patching, but is essentially OK.
Video of the 5.9L V8 engine running. The camera microphone doesn't do the side exit exhausts justice :twisted: !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do9SwGoj8h4
More pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukjeeper/sets/7215763...
If you still don't think the addiction is a problem, i've also had two "YJ" Wranglers (an '89 and the current '91) and two "XJ" Cherokee's (The '94 was KIA a couple years ago after being T-Boned by an 18 wheeler, and the '98 was sold recently to generate FSJ funds)
Turned out to be as rotten as a pear, throughout the body. Which as i was to discover, is a standard issue with FSJ's. The drivetrain and frame, however was in great shape. So when another FSJ came up on the bay a couple months later, i grabbed it too in the hopes of being able to swapping body parts around and using sheet metal from one to patch the other.
Turns out the second one was even worse off than the first one.
To recoup my £££ (TBH, both cars had cost me less than £700), i chose to part out the first one. Had people come from as far as Wales and Holland to snatch up the engine, axles, and drivetrain parts. Then weighed the body in for scrap. Made more in parts than i had paid out, topping up the 'Jeep fund'.Which i was then able to put to (what i thought was) good use when i found the 3rd FSJ later that year.
This one has a 'claim to fame' in that it was featured in Practical Classics magazine (Dec 2006) for a story about 'cheap' off-roaders (Written by Matt Jones). For which i trailered it up to Wildtracks, near Newmarket.
Unfortunately a couple of weeks later, i accidently pulled off one of the A pillars with my hand :shock: . Which tells you the extent of the corrosion damage :roll: . The second FSJ wasn't much better.
So, i parted them out (had a bloke come all the way from the Baltic Sea to pick up a lot of it), and weighed in the rest.
And gave up.
Until now.
Our local Jeep Club used to have a regular visitor at the monthly pub meets in Ben, a young man with an '82 Jeep Cherokee Chief that had been owned and passed several members of the family until it finally was taken on by Ben. As I've had a few SJ's in the past, we'd hang out and talk about what needed to be done to his Jeep and how best to proceed.
Then he stopped coming to the meets. Months went by, until last September, when he showed up again.
Turned out the reason he'd not been coming was because he'd been in and out of hospital for months. He'd been diagnosed with, and was being treated for, Aplastic Anemia, a form of Leukemia. Which basically means your bone marrow stops making blood cells.
So we spent the evening talking about his illness, Jeeps, Harleys, and general BS'ing. The next month i tried getting in touch to see if he was coming, that's when i found out he had lost his fight against his illness a few days before. At the age of 28.
Unfortunately i was not able to attend Ben's Funeral as my Mother In Law passed at about the same time, also from a long term illness, and we had to go to California for her funeral.
I waited a few months before trying to reach out to his family to find out what their plans were for the Chief. I finally reached his Mum on Facebook, through his page, and explained who i was and what Ben and i had talked about. This is her reply:
[quote]i'm so glad to hear from you. The meet he turned up to was two days before he went to st barts and never came home. He barely made it home that night. He kept blacking out, but refused to let my husband chauffeur him or come get him. He was so stubborn, he spoke about that evening as he said you had said about helping him. I had to cancel the order from the States, but he had been getting bits from various sources. The reason I was trying to find the Jeep Club was I had hoped to do just as you've said. Ben so wanted it finished, I couldn't bear for it to just waste away.
We called it the family heirloom as all of us had passed it around free, except for the large bills for whatever ailed it at that time. I would be grateful if you would come and look at it and discuss our options. Ben had two other projects, his Harley and his Fiesta [color=#BF0000](Mkii, UKJ)[/color]. The Fiesta is a project his friends in the Ford club want to do, and his Harley will be going to Italy in September to a Harley meet with one of his friends. No rush but when you want to come look let me know and we can discuss the options. My main aim is for Ben's projects to be finished and loved.
Loraine
[/quote]
Read her answer to my Wife last night, who of course started bawling as it reminded her of her Mom passing. And she DEMANDED that i follow this through. For Ben, for Ben's Mum, (and for her Mom).
No pressure then! :shock:
Went out to meet Tony and Loraine (Ben's Parents), looked over the Chief, and had a long talk with them about what the future holds. I told them what was wrong and what needed to be done. I explained to them as it is, if it was sold on Ebay, etc it would very probably end up being broken up for parts (the drivetrain is quite desirable for other off-roaders, as i found previously), and the rest would be scrapped. Because it was converted to RHD correctly (most of the UK SJ's, like all of my three, were converted "1/2 way" by cutting the steering column in half and using a chain drive to take the column across to the right hand side, along with various linkages for brake. etc) a successful sale to a Euro collecter would be difficult, and may again have resulted in the concern of stripping/scrapping.
As an '82 SJ properly converted to RHD drive it is a very rare vehicle. Perhaps one of the rarest Jeeps in Britain. It's not a particularly valuable car (as i said, i've had 3 in the past, all for under £300-£500), but Ben's parent's weren't concerned about it's financial value, they wanted the same as i do, to see Ben's final project completed and to see the "Family Heirloom" restored and attending car shows.
The result of this is that they have now given me Ben's Jeep (AKA "Freddie" as in Kruger).
Quite a bit to be done, first of which, and most important is to repair the roof. It has several rust holes that will need to be cut out and patched ('filler' is not an option). The roof bars and strips are not on the Jeep, and the area's around the bolt holes are quite well rusted. Also the edges of the roof above the drivers and passenger door, along with a small area at the front over the windshield are dissolved.
However... All of the bodywork below the gutters and down, is pristine. The fenders, wheel arches (inside and out), door frames, tailgate, and floor pans are perfect. No visible damage. Underbody still has good underseal, the fuel and brake lines show no corrosion, frame is good (except a bit of surface rust at the front frame horns). Chrome bumpers have no peeling or bubbling. Weather strips around glass is good. Rear window goes down, AND UP without tilting (though i didn't go all the way down). Rubber strips along bottom of drivers, rear, passenger windows is perished though. Tailgate will need patching, but is essentially OK.
Video of the 5.9L V8 engine running. The camera microphone doesn't do the side exit exhausts justice :twisted: !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=do9SwGoj8h4
More pictures.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ukjeeper/sets/7215763...
If you still don't think the addiction is a problem, i've also had two "YJ" Wranglers (an '89 and the current '91) and two "XJ" Cherokee's (The '94 was KIA a couple years ago after being T-Boned by an 18 wheeler, and the '98 was sold recently to generate FSJ funds)
Edited by UKJeeper on Thursday 11th July 14:35
A very sad story. My condolences to all those affected by Ben's death.
At least his dream will be realised by you. Well done.
I love the FSJs, and shall be keeping an eye on your progress.
I have been thinking about buying a Wagoneer for a couple of years now, so any info about the drivetrain and bodywork repairs etc. will be useful.
A friend in Norfolk had 2 Wagoneers and a military one with a crane on the back. He sold one of the Waggys to the BBC to be used in a mini-crime series (25 years ago?), and they ended it by driving it over a cliff and blowing it up. He was promised the salvage rights to the car (there were quite a few new parts on it), but they said there was nothing left, despite the fact that when it went over the cliff you could see that the engine had been removed. Don't trust them!
Anyway, good luck, and keep us posted.
At least his dream will be realised by you. Well done.
I love the FSJs, and shall be keeping an eye on your progress.
I have been thinking about buying a Wagoneer for a couple of years now, so any info about the drivetrain and bodywork repairs etc. will be useful.
A friend in Norfolk had 2 Wagoneers and a military one with a crane on the back. He sold one of the Waggys to the BBC to be used in a mini-crime series (25 years ago?), and they ended it by driving it over a cliff and blowing it up. He was promised the salvage rights to the car (there were quite a few new parts on it), but they said there was nothing left, despite the fact that when it went over the cliff you could see that the engine had been removed. Don't trust them!
Anyway, good luck, and keep us posted.
If anyone is looking, this one is currently on the Bay
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281131285163
Overpriced, IMO. But when it doesn't sell, maybe a lower offer will be accepted.
There are several lustworthy Waggies advertised on CarAndClassic.co.uk, classified section. All across the water in Euroland though, and not particularly cheap.
Finding one over here in the UK is right up there with hen's teeth and rocking horse poop. Finding one that's restorable is even rarer. Ben's one, despite its knackered roof IS restorable, or i wouldn't have told his parents i'd even try. Just have to find a place that can do bodywork.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/281131285163
Overpriced, IMO. But when it doesn't sell, maybe a lower offer will be accepted.
There are several lustworthy Waggies advertised on CarAndClassic.co.uk, classified section. All across the water in Euroland though, and not particularly cheap.
Finding one over here in the UK is right up there with hen's teeth and rocking horse poop. Finding one that's restorable is even rarer. Ben's one, despite its knackered roof IS restorable, or i wouldn't have told his parents i'd even try. Just have to find a place that can do bodywork.
Edited by UKJeeper on Thursday 11th July 14:40
300bhp/ton said:
Would love to see a Gladiator here in the UK.
J Trucks can be found here. I know of a few J10 and J20's. Gladiators (J200)...notsomuch. They were only sold till '71 and AMC didn't try the Euro market until the end of the 70's.
Lighthouse Jeep up near Diss may have one. They have barns full of SJ's in various stages/states. But i highly doubt it would be for sale (if it existed).
Knowing Tim and this story this FSJ will be returned to glory in the future.
It may result in Tim living in a tent with Bella and Chino (his dogs) because he has sold his sole, his house and having to put his lovely wife up in a hotel whilst the work gets completed.
But dedication and fellow Jeepers will get him there.
It may result in Tim living in a tent with Bella and Chino (his dogs) because he has sold his sole, his house and having to put his lovely wife up in a hotel whilst the work gets completed.
But dedication and fellow Jeepers will get him there.
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